Counterfeit electronic components are an increasing threat to the supply chain for consumer, industrial and, more importantly, military parts. Some counterfeit parts are like counterfeit money, unauthorized copies. Other cases include mislabeled parts where parts meant for one purpose are relabeled for another by changing the part number. Specifically, parts built for consumer purposes can [...]

A new anti-counterfeiting requirement from the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) at Fort Belvoir, Va., is triggering pushback from semiconductor manufacturers, who claim the new requirement is not an appropriate cure for electronics counterfeiting, does not adequate authenticate legacy semiconductors, has not been tested adequately, and will increase semiconductor manufacturing costs.The DNA-marking mandate, which became effective on 15 November [...]

Toshiba has revealed a security module for automotive microcontrollers meeting industry anti-hacking, anti-tamper and software theft standards. Developed at the company’s automotive development centre in Düsseldorf, the Toshiba Security Module will be built into future generations of the company’s ARM Cortex-based automotive microcontrollers. “The module’s firmware is, as a first release step, compliant with the Secure [...]

A secret nanoscale “backdoor” etched into the silicon of a supposedly secure programmable chip could give cyberattackers access to classified US weapons systems, including guidance, flight control, networking, and communications systems, according to a new report by cybersecurity researchers in Britain. Report: Hackers could access US weapons systems through vulnerable chip – CSMonitor.com.

Two Cambridge experts have discovered a “back door” in a computer chip used in military systems and aircraft such as the Boeing 787 that could allow the chip to be taken over via the internet. The discovery will heighten concerns about the risks of cyber-attacks on sensitive installations, coming on the heels of the discovery this week of [...]

During last days an insistent news circulated on internet, a microchip used by the US military and manufactured in China contains a secret “backdoor” that make possible a remote control of the devices. China-made US military chip, security backdoor or debugging functionality? | Security Affairs. Where malicious or placed in as part of debug feature, [...]

Develop an affordable x-ray microscope system for use in performing integrated circuit (IC) reverse engineering via SBIR/STTR Interactive Topic Information System (SITIS). Editor’s note: An important first step in developing a comprehensive X-ray inspection program to detect counterfeit and trojan ICs.

Dialog (Kirchheim-unter-Teck, Germany) is using the Intrinsic-ID technology to ensure that only authenticated software can run on the SC14453S, Voice over IP, platform. A message authentication tag for a bootloader or software image of a particular customer is stored with the Intrinsic-ID core, without the need for embedded non-volatile memory, which would be a hacking [...]

Most Internet users know about the existence of software Trojans, but that of hardware ones is less known. They consist of integrated circuits that have been modified by malicious individuals so that when triggered, they try to disable or bypass the system’s security, or even destroy the entire chip on which they are located. New [...]

The research arm for the federal intelligence community is seeking to create a more secure way to develop microprocessors that bakes protection right into the chips. Through a program called Trusted Integrated Chips (TIC), the Intelligence Advanced Research Project Agency (IARPA) aims to develop what it’s calling a “split-manufacturing” process for chips to ensure intellectual [...]